Last night, President George W. Bush held a rare live, hour-long, prime time News Conference from the East Room of the White House. The main focus of the conference, and the President's 17-minute opening speech, was the current status of Iraq, the deadline for the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, and the role of our Armed Forces in Iraq both now and after the transfer. But when the press core got the chance to ask the President a few questions at the conclusion of his remarks - the focus of the conference quickly changed from Iraq to September 11th.

Of the 17 questions asked to the President, three had to do with whether or not President Bush should apologize to the families of the victims and/or take personal responsibility for the September 11th attacks. In fact, the three specific questions the reporters asked the President were:

• "Two and a half years later, do you feel any sense of personal responsibility for September 11th?"
• "The question of whether this administration did enough to ward off 9/11, you never admit a mistake. Is that a fair criticism? And do you believe that there were any errors in judgment that you made?"
• "Two weeks ago, a former counterterrorism official at the NSC [National Security Council], Richard Clarke, offered an unequivocal apology to the American people for failing them prior to 9/11. Do you believe the American people deserve a similar apology from you, and would you be prepared to give them one?"

Instead of answering the questions, which should have and could have been a simple "yes" answer to all three, President Bush's "answers" were the following:

• I feel incredibly grieved when I meet with family members. And I do quite frequently. I grieve for, you know, the incredible loss of life that they feel, the emptiness they feel.
• Well, I think, as I mentioned, the country wasn't on war footing. And yet we're at war. And that's just a reality. I mean that was the situation that existed prior to 9/11. Because the truth of the matter is, most of the country never felt that we'd be vulnerable to an attack such as the one that Osama Bin Laden unleashed on us. We knew he had designs on us. We knew he hated us. But there was nobody in our government at least - and I don't think the prior government - could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale.
• Look, I can understand why people in my administration are anguished over the fact that people lost their life. I feel the same way. I mean I'm sick when I think about the death that took place on that day. And as I mentioned, I met with a lot of family members and I do the best to console them about the loss of their loved one. As I mentioned, I oftentimes think about what I could have done differently. I can assure the American people that had we had any inkling that this was going to happen, we would have done everything in our power to stop the attack.

So in other words - he didn't answer.

All he had to say was yes, I do feel responsible for the fact that the attacks of September 11th took place "under my watch." Both myself and my administration could have done more to prevent the attack - like pay more attention to the August 6th PDB that warned me that Osama Bin Laden was determined to strike within the United States - and therefore I sincerely apologize to the families of the victims of September 11th for allowing such an attack to take place during my tenure as President. But he obviously won't do that.

The fact that he danced around three different questions in the same news conference without actually answering them is a clear indication that either he feels that he does not have to apologize for September 11th - or will not. In no way am I saying that President Bush is responsible for the attacks of September 11th - because we all know that Osama Bin Laden is. I am also not saying that if someone else was President before the attacks that they would have been able to stop it. I am simply saying that if the Captain of a ship is responsible for the conduct of the crew under his or her command, than the Commander and Chief of the United States of America should take full responsibility and apologize for the lack of Intelligence by his government that allowed foreign terrorists to execute a successful attack against innocent civilians on American soil. As the highest ranking official in America, he is the last peg on the ladder and therefore must absorb the brunt of the wrongdoing with regard to the worst day of our lives. No one wants to take the blame for such an atrocity - but after all - he is the President...

...and if he wants to stay the President - he should apologize - now.